Group Captain Thomas Percy Gleave CBE was a British fighter pilot during the Battle of Britain.
19 Facts About Tom Gleave
1.
2.
Tom Gleave was shot down in his Hurricane the summer of 1940 and grievously burned.
3.
Tom Gleave was one of the first patients treated by Sir Archibald McIndoe at the Queen Victoria Hospital, East Grinstead, and became the first and only Chief Guinea Pig.
4.
Tom Gleave was educated at Westminster High School and Liverpool Collegiate School.
5.
Tom Gleave joined the Sefton Tanning Company in 1924 and began flying, earning a private pilot's license in 1928.
6.
At the outbreak of war Tom Gleave requested a return to RAF Fighter Command, which was granted.
7.
Command was handed to Squadron Leader H Starr in August 1940, but Tom Gleave resumed command when Starr was shot down on 31 August.
8.
Tom Gleave was shot down on his first sortie after restoration of his command, on 31 August 1940, and badly burned.
9.
Tom Gleave was transferred to East Grinstead where McIndoe reconstructed his nose.
10.
Tom Gleave recovered sufficiently to be returned to non-flying duties and briefly commanded RAF Northolt before taking over RAF Manston, from where he dispatched the six Fairey Swordfish of 825 Squadron in their attempt to sink the Scharnhorst, Gneisenau and Prinz Eugen.
11.
Tom Gleave was then seconded to the planning group for what became Operation Overlord and promoted to Group Captain.
12.
Tom Gleave served as Eisenhower's Head of Air Plans at SHAEF from 1 October 1944 to 15 July 1945 and was then Senior Air Staff Officer, RAF Delegation to France, from 1945 to 1947.
13.
Tom Gleave was finally invalided out of the RAF in 1953, and returned to East Grinstead for further reconstructive surgery.
14.
Tom Gleave then joined the Historical Section of the Cabinet Office where he remained for the next thirty years, being elected a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and becoming Air Historian and deputy chairman to the Battle of Britain Fighter Association.
15.
Tom Gleave was interviewed for the 2002 drama documentary The Guinea Pig Club and is discussed in most histories of the Guinea Pigs.
16.
Tom Gleave is credited as a technical and tactical advisor for the 1969 film Battle of Britain.
17.
Twice mentioned in dispatches, Tom Gleave was appointed a CBE for his work on Overlord, and the American Legion of Honor.
18.
Tom Gleave was awarded the French Legion d'honneur and Croix de Guerre and the wings of the Polish and French air forces.
19.
Tom Gleave was elected Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.